SoftBank agrees to buy ABB's robotics division for $5.375 billion, killing the planned spin-off at 17 times EBITDA
SoftBank Group will acquire ABB Robotics for an enterprise value of US$5.375 billion, the two companies said on 8 October 2025, replacing ABB's plan to list the unit separately in 2026. The division had 2024 revenue of US$2.279 billion and about 7,000 employees, and the deal needs approval in the EU, China and the US before an expected close in mid-to-late 2026.
SoftBank Group agreed on 8 October 2025 to buy ABB's robotics division for an enterprise value of US$5.375 billion, ABB and SoftBank said in separate announcements, ending the Swiss engineering group's plan to float the business on its own and handing the Japanese investor one of the established names in industrial robot arms. SoftBank put the price at about ¥818.7 billion, using an exchange rate of ¥152.31 to the dollar.
Pro forma, unaudited figures published by SoftBank show ABB Robotics generated revenue of US$2.279 billion in 2024, down from US$2.452 billion in 2023, with EBITDA of US$313 million and operational EBITA of US$277 million. ABB said the division accounted for about 7% of group revenue in 2024 and earned an operational EBITA margin of 12.1%. At the agreed value SoftBank is paying about 17.2 times 2024 EBITDA and 2.4 times 2024 revenue, according to MEKAWIRE calculations from the disclosed figures. The business employs about 7,000 people.
Under the agreement, ABB will carve the robotics business out into a newly established holding company in Zurich, and a SoftBank subsidiary will buy 100% of its shares. The holding company is led by Marc Segura, the current president of the ABB Robotics division. The price is subject to customary adjustments for net working capital and net debt at closing. SoftBank said its board approved the transaction on 22 September 2025, Japan time. The companies need regulatory clearance in the European Union, China and the United States and expect to complete the deal in the middle to late part of 2026.
For ABB the sale replaces the spin-off it announced on 17 April 2025, when it said it would list Robotics as a separate company in the second quarter of 2026 and distribute the shares to its own shareholders as a dividend in kind. Chief executive Morten Wierod said at the time that there were limited business and technology synergies between Robotics and the rest of ABB. ABB now expects cash proceeds of about US$5.3 billion net of transaction costs, a non-operational pre-tax book gain of about US$2.4 billion, separation costs of about US$200 million, of which US$100 million was already in its 2025 guidance, and transaction-related cash tax outflows of US$400 million to US$500 million. Robotics will be reported as discontinued operations from the fourth quarter of 2025, and the Machine Automation division will move into ABB's Process Automation business area, leaving the group with three business areas.
SoftBank framed the purchase as part of its push towards what it calls artificial super intelligence, which it pursues through four areas of investment: AI chips, AI robots, AI data centres and energy. Masayoshi Son, SoftBank's chairman and chief executive, said physical AI was the group's next frontier and that the combination would fuse super intelligence with robotics. SoftBank said it would pair ABB Robotics' brand, reliability, sales channels and customer relationships with its AI technology, and named five robotics holdings it expects to work alongside the unit: SoftBank Robotics Group, Berkshire Grey, AutoStore, Agile Robots and Skild AI. Wierod called SoftBank an excellent new home for the business and its employees.
The deal reverses the direction of SoftBank's last large robotics exit. In a transaction announced on 11 December 2020, Hyundai Motor Group took a controlling stake of about 80% in Boston Dynamics at a valuation of US$1.1 billion, with SoftBank keeping about 20%. Boston Dynamics was a research-heavy maker of legged robots. ABB Robotics is a mature industrial supplier with a global service network, and its earnings have been volatile, with EBITDA of US$221 million in 2022, US$385 million in 2023 and US$313 million in 2024.
- ABB Robotics
- SoftBank Group
- 2025-10-08
- 5375
- 100
- 5375
- 2279
- 2.4
- Universal Robots
- Teradyne
- 2015-05-13
- 285
- 100
- 285
- 38
- 7.5
- Fetch Robotics
- Zebra Technologies
- 2021-07-01
- 290
- 95
- 305
- 10
- 30.5
- Boston Dynamics
- Hyundai Motor Group
- 2020-12-11
- No data
- 80
- 1100
- No data
- No data
Implied 100% value = price / stake acquired; ABB Robotics figure is enterprise value and 2024 pro forma revenue. Universal Robots price is net of cash and excludes up to US$65m earn-out; revenue is 2014, stated as more than US$38m. Fetch revenue is annualised run rate at announcement. Boston Dynamics price not disclosed; US$1.1bn valuation as stated by SoftBank. Figures disclosed by the companies, ratios calculated by MEKAWIRE.
As of Oct 8, 2025
The price is far larger than earlier takeovers of robot makers by technology and equipment groups. Teradyne agreed in May 2015 to pay US$285 million net of cash for Universal Robots, plus up to US$65 million in earn-outs, when the Danish cobot maker had 2014 revenue of more than US$38 million. Zebra Technologies agreed in July 2021 to pay US$290 million for the 95% of Fetch Robotics it did not already own, when Fetch had an annualised revenue run rate of about US$10 million. Measured against revenue, ABB Robotics is the cheapest of the three, at 2.4 times against about 7.5 times for Universal Robots and about 30 times for Fetch, which reflects the difference between buying a mature cyclical business and buying growth.
SoftBank is entering a market dominated by a handful of established arm makers, among them Japan's FANUC, Yaskawa Electric and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Germany's KUKA, owned by China's Midea, and Teradyne's Universal Robots, alongside fast-growing Chinese suppliers such as Estun Automation. The International Federation of Robotics said in its World Robotics 2025 report that 542,000 industrial robots were installed worldwide in 2024, of which 295,000 went to China, and that Chinese suppliers held 57% of their home market. Japan installed 44,500 units, the United States 34,200, South Korea 30,600 and Germany 26,982. The IFR expects global installations to rise 6% to about 575,000 units in 2025.
The technology bet is straightforward to describe and hard to execute. Most industrial arms today repeat motions that integrators program in advance, which works on car lines and in electronics assembly but struggles with variable parts and short runs. SoftBank's thesis is that general-purpose robot models, the kind Skild AI develops, can let the same arms perceive their surroundings and adapt, and that ABB's controllers, safety certifications and installed base give such software a route to paying customers that start-ups lack.
The risks are concrete. SoftBank did not disclose how it will finance the purchase and said the effect on its consolidated results would be announced once determined. Approval is needed in China, the world's largest robot market by installations, where domestic suppliers have been gaining share. ABB Robotics' revenue fell about 7% in 2024, and the unit will spend up to a year in limbo between signing and closing while competitors court its customers. SoftBank's record as an operator of industrial hardware businesses is also thinner than its record as an investor.
The next milestones are ABB's first report with Robotics as discontinued operations, covering the fourth quarter of 2025, the merger filings in the EU, China and the US, and the closing that both sides expect in mid-to-late 2026. SoftBank has yet to name the subsidiary that will hold ABB Robotics or explain how it will connect the unit with Skild AI, AutoStore and its other holdings.
MEKAWIRE analysis
SoftBank is paying an industrial multiple for a sales channel and an installed base that its robot AI bets lack, while ABB has swapped the uncertain upside of a listing for US$5.3 billion in cash.
The evidence sits in the numbers. At 17.2 times 2024 EBITDA and 2.4 times revenue, SoftBank is valuing ABB Robotics at the kind of multiple paid for established equipment makers. What it gets is about 7,000 staff, a controller and safety stack already certified in factories, and customer relationships that a model developer such as Skild AI would take years to build. ABB, for its part, gets a pre-tax book gain of about US$2.4 billion on net assets that SoftBank's disclosure puts at US$770 million, and avoids the execution risk of a 2026 listing.
The strongest counter-argument is that the hardware may not be where the value accrues. If general-purpose robot models become portable across brands, the profit pool could shift to software and to low-cost Chinese arms, leaving SoftBank with a capital-heavy business whose sales already fell 7% in 2024 and whose EBITDA swung between US$221 million and US$385 million over three years.
Bull case. SoftBank uses ABB's channels to push AI-driven applications into thousands of existing cells, lifting service and software revenue per robot. A credible Western-owned alternative to FANUC, Yaskawa and Midea's KUKA could also benefit as manufacturers in Europe and the US weigh supplier origin.
Bear case. Regulators in China or elsewhere impose conditions or delay closing into late 2026, and customers hedge during the transition. Integration with SoftBank's portfolio stays at the level of press releases, and the unit ends up as another holding valued on cyclical industrial earnings.
Signals to watch.
- Q4 2025 results: ABB's first report showing Robotics as discontinued operations and any update on proceeds.
- First half of 2026: merger decisions in the EU, China and the US, and whether any carry conditions.
- Mid-to-late 2026: closing, the name of SoftBank's acquiring subsidiary, and the first disclosed product or customer link between ABB Robotics and Skild AI or AutoStore.
- 2022
- 2258
- 221
- 186
- 642
- 9.8
- 24.3
- 2023
- 2452
- 385
- 349
- 785
- 15.7
- 14
- 2024
- 2279
- 313
- 277
- 770
- 13.7
- 17.2
Pro forma, unaudited figures disclosed by SoftBank Group on 8 Oct 2025. EBITDA margin = EBITDA / revenue; Deal EV / EBITDA = US$5,375m / EBITDA of that year. Ratios calculated by MEKAWIRE.
As of Oct 8, 2025
- SoftBank Group, through a subsidiary
- ABB Robotics division, carved out into a new Zurich holding company
- about 7,000
- US$2.279 billion pro forma, about 7% of ABB Group
- EU, China, United States
- US$5.375 billion (about ¥818.7 billion at ¥152.31/US$)
- mid-to-late 2026
- about US$5.3 billion net; book gain about US$2.4 billion
- 17.2x (MEKAWIRE calculation)
- 12.1%
Why it matters
This is the first time a large AI investor has bought a top-tier industrial robot maker outright, and it moves a profitable business with about 7,000 staff and US$2.279 billion of 2024 revenue out of a diversified European engineering group and into a portfolio built around AI models, chips and data centres. It tests the proposition that robot software developers need to own hardware and customer access rather than rent them through partnerships.
It also removes a planned 2026 listing that would have given public investors a pure-play European industrial robot stock. The capital that would have been raised in that listing now flows to ABB shareholders through the group's capital allocation, while the robot business becomes part of a privately controlled stack whose economics will be far less visible.
Rival analysis
FANUC, Yaskawa Electric and Kawasaki Heavy Industries remain listed Japanese specialists, KUKA is owned by Midea, and Universal Robots sits inside Teradyne. ABB Robotics now joins the camp of robot makers owned by a parent with a broader strategic agenda, but unlike Midea or Teradyne, SoftBank's agenda is AI software rather than appliances or semiconductor test.
The pressure comes from China. The IFR's World Robotics 2025 report says Chinese suppliers took 57% of their home market in 2024, when China installed 295,000 of the world's 542,000 new industrial robots. Western and Japanese incumbents compete there with Estun and other domestic makers on price, and a SoftBank-owned ABB Robotics will need a differentiation story beyond hardware to defend share in the largest market.
Valuation context
SoftBank's US$5.375 billion equals about 17.2 times 2024 EBITDA of US$313 million, 19.4 times operational EBITA of US$277 million and 2.4 times revenue of US$2.279 billion, all from SoftBank's pro forma, unaudited disclosure. Against 2023 EBITDA of US$385 million the multiple falls to 14.0 times, and against 2022's US$221 million it rises to 24.3 times, which shows how much the headline multiple depends on the year chosen.
Earlier robot takeovers were priced on growth. Teradyne paid US$285 million net of cash for Universal Robots in 2015, about 7.5 times 2014 revenue of more than US$38 million, and Zebra paid US$290 million for 95% of Fetch Robotics in 2021, implying about US$305 million for the whole company against an annualised run rate of about US$10 million. ABB booking a pre-tax gain of about US$2.4 billion against net assets of US$770 million indicates the price is well above book value.
Supply-chain implications
ABB Robotics brings controllers, arms, software and a service organisation. Industrial arm makers draw precision reducers, servo motors and drives from a concentrated supply base in Japan, Germany and China, so ownership change alone does not alter component dependence. The carve-out into a separate holding company will require transitional service and supply agreements with ABB, whose separation costs it puts at about US$200 million.
For SoftBank's portfolio, the link most likely to matter early is AutoStore, whose cube storage systems are built and sold through integrators, and Skild AI, which needs physical robots to train and deploy its model. Neither company has disclosed any supply or product agreement with ABB Robotics as part of this announcement.
Signals to watch
Q4 2025: ABB's results will show Robotics as discontinued operations for the first time and may update expected proceeds and separation costs. Watch also for any change to the ABB Robotics management team under Marc Segura during the carve-out.
First half of 2026: merger review decisions in the EU, China and the US, the three jurisdictions named by SoftBank. Mid-to-late 2026: closing, the identity of the acquiring SoftBank subsidiary, the financing structure, and SoftBank's first estimate of the effect on its consolidated results.
Analyst view
Thesis: SoftBank has bought distribution and credibility in factories at a mature-industrial price, which is a rational hedge for its robot AI investments, but the payoff depends on integration that SoftBank has not yet described. Confidence: medium.
Reasons for medium confidence: the price, multiples and ABB's proceeds are fully disclosed and verifiable, and the strategic logic is stated by both parties. Against that, financing, the acquiring vehicle, the effect on SoftBank's results and any concrete product plan with Skild AI or AutoStore are undisclosed, and the regulatory path through China is uncertain.
Questions you should be asking
How will SoftBank finance a US$5.375 billion cash purchase alongside its other AI commitments, and will ABB Robotics carry debt after closing?
Will Chinese regulators clear the deal without conditions, given that China is the largest robot market by installations? Which ABB Robotics products, if any, will be the first to ship with Skild AI's model, and on what timeline? Will customers in automotive and electronics delay orders during the transition?